The Trump Administration does not plan to set drinking water standards to limit concentrations of a class of chemicals that have been linked to cancer, according to a report in Politico.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler is expected to release a detailed response plan to growing concerns over the class of chemicals known as per- or poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. Among the most widespread PFAS compounds are perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS), which were widely used in consumer goods like Scotchgard, Teflon and waterproof clothing and in fire-fighting foams commonly found at airports and military facilities.

The EPA action plan has not been made public yet, but Politico quoted two unnamed sources familiar with the details of the plan. An EPA spokesman told Politico that the plan was under interagency review, and some Republicans in Congress have expressed concern over the reported details of the plan.

Chemical giant 3M manufactured PFOA and PFOS for decades at its facility in Decatur on the Tennessee River, and is facing multiplelawsuits related to PFAS contamination in Alabama. Attorneys representing 3M have argued that the chemicals do not pose a danger to humans or animals at concentrations typically found in the environment and that the company voluntarily stopped producing those two chemicals in 2002.

The Politico report states that manufacturers and large-quantity users of PFAS compounds like 3M and the Department of Defense could face “billions of dollars” in liability if forced to take aggressive measures to clean up the contamination. In a separate story, Politico reported that 3M has already paid $1.5 billion to settle lawsuits relating to PFAS, including personal injury claims.

The chemicals are designed to be extremely resistant to breaking down in the natural environment, persisting for decades, and have been shown to build up over time in the living tissue of humans and animals. Studies have shown that nearly every person tested has some amount of those chemicals in their bloodstream.

That advisory did not set any enforceable limit on concentrations of those chemicals in drinking water, but advised utilities that exposure to PFOA and PFOS at levels as low as 70 parts per trillion in drinking water could be associated with health concerns.

In June 2018, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) -- a branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control that studies the health risks of exposure to potentially harmful substances -- issued a draft toxicological profile for PFAS recommending a minimal risk level far lower than the EPA health advisory threshold. That suggested minimal risk level equates to about 7 parts per trillion for PFOS and 11 ppt for PFOA.

Politico reported last year that the White House and former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt sought to delay the publication of that report, which officials said could trigger a “public relations nightmare.”

This week’s Politico report states that while the EPA does not plan to add PFAS to the list of regulated substances under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which would set a legal limit for how much of those substances is allowed in drinking water, it does plan to list them as hazardous under the Superfund law, which could help compel companies that manufactured or used those substances in large quantities to clean up contamination left behind.

Alabama issues

When the EPA advisory was issued, eight Alabama water systems exceeded the 70 ppt threshold for PFOA or PFOS. Though not legally mandated to do so, all eight water systems were able to bring the concentrations of those two chemicals below the health advisory limit.

It was not always easy.

The West Morgan East Lawrence Water and Sewer Authority -- which gets its drinking water from an intake on the Tennessee River just a few miles downstream of Decatur -- initially advised customers not to drink their tap water after the health advisory, then spent millions installing a temporary granular activated carbon filtration system to remove the substances from its finished water.

The WMEL is currently planning to construct a permanent reverse osmosis filter to remove the chemicals from its source water and has filed a lawsuit seeking to force 3M to pay for the cost of the new filter system.

The Alabama Department of Environmental Management has encouraged WMEL to “seriously consider” purchasing water from another source rather than building the expensive new treatment system.

“It appears it would be in the best financial interests of WMEL customers - and ADEM would recommend - that WMEL seriously consider merging with another drinking water utility or becoming a purchase water system,” ADEM Director Lance LeFleur wrote in a December letter to WMEL General Manager Don Sims. “Such an option could also help restore customer confidence in the quality of their drinking water, since confidence reportedly has been severely damaged in recent years.”

Decatur Utilities, which gets its water from the Tennessee River upstream of the 3M facility, was not among the eight Alabama water systems that exceeded the 2016 EPA health advisory level.

While much of the focus and the bulk of the scientific research has focused on two chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, there are hundreds of other similar compounds which are still in production, many of which are direct replacements for PFOA and PFOS and have similar chemical makeups. The ATSDR highlights 14 chemicals in its PFAS report, and another group of researchers say they have identified more than 2,000 PFAS compounds currently used in consumer products.

Researchers at UAB published a study in 2017 showing those “short-chain” replacement chemicals build up in “every organ” in mice, including brains, hearts, livers, bones and skin.